By John Huggan
At the start of the final round of the HNA Open de France, a wee bit of history making was in the offing. Not once in the long and colorful narrative of the event had a Swede lifted the title, but with Marcus Kinhalt leading at 10 under par that little discrepancy looked like it might be consigned to the dustbin of, well, history.

Then there were, unusually on the European Tour, the Americans. Two of them—Justin Thomas and Julian Suri—to be precise. Both were four under par, and on the Albatros course at Le Golf National, where danger lurks almost everywhere in the shape of jungle-like rough and multiple water hazards, they were hardly out of contention in their quest to become only the fourth golfers from the USA to claim the historic trophy. The others (surely appearing together in a sentence for the first time) are Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson and Barry Jaeckel.

It wasn’t to be for either Suri or Thomas as things turned out. So there was no American victory in Paris. Not for at least another three months, when the Ryder Cup will be played at Le Golf National. But, sure enough, the Swedish record of futility is over.

Which is not to say rising star Kinhult got the job done. He did not, a closing 76 consigning the 21-year-old to a T-5 finish alongside Jon Rahm. Courtesy of a final-round 67 and with, among the leading players, an almost unique ability to complete the treacherous closing stretch in something less than par, Alex Noren is the French Open champion. Two birdies in the last three holes took the now 11-time European Tour winner to eight under par for the week and, not incidentally, made him €1,008,578 richer.

Related: Watch Justin Thomas nearly chip-in for birdie off bridge on 18th hole at French Open

Consider the following. While Noren played those final four holes—the so-called “Loop of Doom”—in two under par, only Russell Knox, one of the three runners-up, managed four regulation figures over the same stretch. Elsewhere, it was carnage. Another of those in second place, Chris Wood, dropped shots on the 15th and 17th to come up one-stroke short. Most notably, however, Suri was three over par for the last four, including a desperately disappointing double-bogey 6 on the 18th where his approach found the water short of the green.

Mention should also be made of Rahm. Two shots back by the end, the burly Spaniard was hamstrung by a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 12th. Badly disturbed by a clicking camera on his backswing as he teed off, his ball bounded for the fescue right of the fairway, Rahm hacked and slashed his way up the 433 yarder, only managing to reach the green with his fourth gouge from the hay. To say he was unhappy at this unfortunate turn of events would be something of an understatement.

As for Thomas, the World No. 2—the only member of the field likely to return as part of the away team in the upcoming Ryder Cup—professed himself happy enough with a week in which he broke or equaled par all four days.

The fast-finishing Noren was even happier though. His weekend total of 132 (65-67) was the best over the closing 36 holes by four strokes.

“I never thought I was going to win,” he said with disarming honesty. “But anything can happen on this course. On the first two days I never really played my best golf. But I played much better on the weekend. It was tough to watch my opponents play down the stretch, but that is golf. I’m very happy.

“All I was trying to do was get to maybe seven or eight under. Through the years I have always had a tough time here, mostly because I was not hitting enough fairways. But I did that over the last two rounds this year. It is so demanding and so tough out there, especially when you stand on the tees.”

As for the Ryder Cup, Noren, if he was not before, is now a near certainty to make his debut in European colors. But, modest soul that he is, he was taking nothing for granted, at least as far as he will feel while competing in the biennial contest on such a tough lay out.

Tony Marshall/Getty Images
Noren and his wife, Jennifer, celebrate his 11th career European Tour title.

“There was so much pressure today,” Noren continued. “I can only imagine what it will be like in the Ryder Cup. Besides, for now I am more focused on the Open Championship at Carnoustie. I like links golf. And the Open is the best major for me. I’ll be practicing hard for the next week and a half with that in mind.”

Not immediately though. Noren and his wife, Jennifer, planned to stay in Paris for a few days to celebrate her birthday. Quite right, too.

One last thing. By way of some consolation, Knox, Suri and Kinhult claimed the three exempt spots available for this month’s Open Championship at Carnoustie. One more chance for all three to beat Alex Noren.

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Somehow, the reigning PGA champion’s approach shot came to rest on a bridge behind the 18th green, a spot it’d be impossible to stop your ball if you were actually trying. Thomas took advantage of the good break by clipping a perfect chip that was tracking the entire way to the hole. Check it out:

“Surely not?!”

Justin Thomas signing off in style.#HNAOpenDeFrance #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/PRjXkeuQCg

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) July 1, 2018

Had it dropped, it would have made Thomas one of just five players in the field to birdie the hole in the final round. It also would have moved him into the top 5 in his French Open debut, but he wound up with a final-round 71, good enough for T-8 at four-under 280. While it’s unlikely he’ll face any more bridge shots in this year’s Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, at least he’s prepared for anything.

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By Ryan Herrington
England’s David Howell is the chairman of the European Tour’s tournament committee, having replaced Thomas Bjorn earlier this year as he focused on his European Ryder Cup captain’s duties. But that doesn’t mean he’s “above the law,” if you will. Playing in the second round of the HNA Open de France, Howell mistakenly showed up late to his tee time at Le Golf National outside Paris.

“I thought I was off at 7:40, not 7:30,” Howell said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever missed a tee time.”

The other two members of his group, Marc Warren and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, teed off without him. Howell caught up, but was accessed a two-stroke penalty. He would wind up with a double-bogey 6 on the 10th hole (his first), the beginning of a long day that included making eight bogeys and a triple bogey en route to him signing for a 10-over 81 and miss the cut by seven strokes.

To make matters worse, Howell is staying at the Novotel Hotel adjacent to the Albatros course.

“I was staying only 300 yards from the first tee. It’s not as if I got stuck in traffic,” he said.

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As a kid, Tommy Fleetwood would to sneak on to the links at Royal Birkdale with his father, Pete, when the members weren’t looking.

Upon learning of his guilty boyhood pleasure, which came after Fleetwood’s rousing fourth placing at last month’s U.S. Open established him as an early favourite for the 146th Open, the club jokingly tweeted a request for “unpaid retrospective green fees”.

The friendly banter continued Monday as Fleetwood rolled into the media centre for the first of The Open’s pre-tournament press conferences.

“You can’t sneak on the places that we used to sneak on anymore,” the 26-year-old revealed. “The 5th was the place that used to be a lot more open, and it’s got fences and bushes there now, so that’s gone. You can’t even get on to watch The Open [for free] anymore.

“You can try, [but] I wouldn’t recommend it. I mean, we were very clever about it, or my dad was, not me. Yeah, it’s a lot tougher these days.”

There’s zero chance of Fleetwood going anywhere this week unnoticed as the banner boy of Southport golf, even if his wins at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Open de France haven’t exactly turned the long haired one into a household name outside of golf.

“I got recognised at the market the other day, but no, nothing that spectacular. There’s nobody fainting in the street as I walk past. So I’m still waiting for those days to come.”

A Claret Jug would undoubtedly set hearts aflutter. So how are you handling the sky high expectations? In a word, Fleetwood finds all the attention “flattering”.

“I’d much rather be in this position where people might be talking about me as a contender than turning up and sort of being a no show,” said Fleetwood who has been grouped with world No.2 Hideki Matsuyama and U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka in a first round draw he described as “quite a big draw, isn’t it, a TV draw. Nice to be part of it.”

“Yeah, I thought about winning The Open since I was five years old, so I think thinking about it another few days isn’t going to make any difference to me.

“Recent results have clearly put me in the eye and made people talk about me as a chance. This is still The Open [though] and there’s so many things that go into it…the luck of the draw goes into it, depending on the conditions. Golf is that funny game where you could turn it one day and feel terrible. There are so many things that came into it and all you can do is do what you can do.”

Interestingly, Fleetwood has missed the cut in his three previous Open appearances and prior to his win in Abu Dhabi found himself on a slide outside the world’s top 150 and wondering where his next rent cheque was coming from. But life has been on the up since he set up house with his fiancée Clare and her two children (the couple are expecting a baby of their own in October) and reconnected with longtime coach Alan Thompson after a confusing stint with Pete Cowan. He also has his best mate Ian Finnis on his bag and admitted now “nothing really scares me”.

The U.S. Open experience, where he contended in a major for the first time, shot 68-72 over the weekend and played in the penultimate Sunday pairing with Koepka, has also given him great belief.

“I didn’t play very well on Sunday, a couple of putts could have dropped. [But] I watched the winner play, which is great. I think just showing to myself that I feel all right in that situation [is the take away from the experience]. And I felt if the time comes again when I’m contending in a major, I know that I can do it, really. I felt fine. And I felt comfortable.

“Of course you’re nervous, but I wasn’t out of control. I wasn’t fearful. I didn’t back away from any shots. And that was — I was proud of that, really.

“At the end of the day, when things are good off the course, what happens on it, it does matter, because it’s your job and it’s your life and all my dream and ambitions stick around golf. But whatever happens I’m going to go home and everything is going to be as good as it’s ever been. So what more do you really want?”

Fleetwood is certainly looking forward to this week far more than the the last time Royal Birkdale hosted the Open in 2008 when Padraig Harrington successfully defended. The keen Everton fan had reached the final of The Amateur Championship that year and a win would have earned a players badge to Birkdale but it wasn’t to be.

“I was a match away, basically, which was upsetting. So I didn’t really watch much of it. I stayed at home. I either went and practiced on my own… because I was in a sulk because I didn’t get to play it.”

The Fleetwood story of the 1998 Open at Birkdale, when Mark O’Meara beat countryman Brian Watts in a playoff, is far happier.

“‘That was the first Open I went to watch. And my first memory was just Justin Leonard who was on the cover of the [official Open souvenir] book. I remember Tiger Woods walking past me. That was the first time I’d ever seen Tiger Woods, and the aura around him at the time. Apart from that, don’t remember much about that, apart from I didn’t get many autographs. I spent the time walking and faking them in my little book.”

And with that, Fleetwood’s first presser was almost over. But not before a final enquiry about how the family were enjoying his time in the Southport spotlight, and particularly about Pete.

“My dad is the same as he’s always been. He’s more interested in his own golf half the time. He’s down to 10 again,” Fleetwood joked. “They’re like any good parents are, they want me to do well and do anything for me to get there. And if I don’t, then that’s – they love me – I’m sure they’re very proud and there’s nothing bad in calling my dad up after France. He had a few drinks and he was happy. There’s nothing better than that because you’ve made him proud.” — Kent Gray travelled to The Open with Etihad Airways

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It is becoming more difficult to keep up with Tommy Fleetwood, whose 2017 season continues to go from strength-to-strength. The winner in Abu Dhabi back in January (where he pipped World No. 1 Dustin Johnson by a shot), the 26-year-old Englishman has now added a second title with his victory in the HNA Open de France at Le Golf National.

In between those two wins, Fleetwood hasn’t been performing too badly, either. So far this year, the former top-ranked amateur was second in the WGC-Mexico Championship, second at the Shenzhen International in China, fourth in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills (where he played alongside eventual champion Brooks Koepka in the final round) and, only one week before this latest triumph, T-6 at the BMW International Open in Germany. He is a player on the rise and a far cry from the struggling young man who arrived at the 2012 South African Open needing a top-10 finish just to keep his European Tour card (he was T-6).

Fleetwood’s 12-under-par 272 in the $7 million event, the second of eight in the European Tour’s new Rolex Series, was also in complete contrast to his previous visits to the course outside of Paris that will host next year’s Ryder Cup matches. Not once had the Southport native broken par; not once had he even made the halfway cut.

This time was different though. Fleetwood’s bogey-free closing 66 left him two shots clear of American Peter Uihlein and was typical of the form he displayed all week, earning him €1,040,824 and pushing him to the top of the Race to Dubai rankings. In the 72 holes, he dropped only four shots to par.

“When the Rolex Series was talked about last year, they were the tournaments we wanted to be in and win,” Fleetwoods said. “To claim this one is a big deal. Today was good from start to finish. I nearly holed my first two iron shots. And I didn’t miss a shot down the stretch. On those last four holes there is a series of shots you just want to get behind you and I hit them all great. I felt very comfortable. It was great to successfully test all the things I work on every day.”

Uihlein—who joined Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Alexander Bjork of Sweden in claiming one of the three exempt spots available in this month’s Open Championship—deserves much credit, too. When Fleetwood made his fifth and final birdie of the day at the par-5 14th he was four shots clear of the former U.S. Amateur champion. The eventual winner then played the pond-infested finishing stretch in level par, yet only won by a single shot. Uihlein, in fact, played the last 13 holes in five under after a slow start that saw him drop consecutive shots at the fourth and fifth holes.

But it was Fleetwood’s week, one will help him rise into the world’s top 15.

“Today is one that I’ll never forget,” he continued. “Winning is the best feeling by far in golf, and to do it on this golf course in this event is just massive. With the start I had this year, it’s very easy to look at the Race to Dubai and want to look towards the end of the year. But topping the money-list is going to be tough. I was a long way ahead and then Sergio [Garcia] won the Masters. You can’t control what other people do. With how strong the tour is, there’s no reason why people can’t win majors. It might be me, it might be someone else.”

Right now though, especially as the Open Championship visits Royal Birkdale and his home town in less than three weeks, it looks a lot like it might be Tommy Fleetwood.

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